Until The World
by Damion Starr
Summary: Shortly after the Losers form, Jensen manages to surprise their sniper. Slash, Jensen/Cougar


To say that Jake Jensen had a talented tongue would be an understatement.

Cougar had of course heard the stories about the young genius as soon as he was chosen personally by Colonel Clay for his elite Losers. The general consensus was that Jensen was hyper intelligent, good at his job, gifted with the ability to bullshit his way in and out of any situation, and overall the ONLY choice for Clay's team.

Except for his goddamn mouth.

They said the kid never shut up, sometimes even in his sleep. He seemed constantly bouncing off the walls, much like his tangents. It took forever for him to get to the point, even with someone directing the conversation.

He was a handful, to say the least, they said. Cougar didn't put much stock into what 'they' said.

Then he met the kid.

Everything everyone had said was a gross under representation of the truth.

Jensen was hyper. Jensen was quirky and unshy about it. Jensen could talk you into the grave and follow you to the afterlife without missing a beat. But he was good at what he did. No, he was THE BEST at what he did, so Cougar calmly took it, letting the hacker's voice flow over him like the wind and ignoring it just as easily.

A few months after they met, Jensen and Cougar were up on the 26th floor of a highrise ready for demolition while the rest of the team was in another building two blocks away. Cougar was at the window, watching Pooch, Clay and Roque move up to the 19th floor through the scope on his rifle. Jensen was behind him, hunched over his computer and running his mouth between directing the others to their target. Cougar was ignoring him, so engrossed in the circle of his world, that his normally sharp ears didn't pick up the soft creak of a footstep behind them. Jensen did, though.

"Cougar!" The hacker shouted over a gunshot muffled by a silencer. Cougar simultaneously turned and raised the nine millimeter on his hip as hot blood splattered across his face. The sniper caught Jensen as he collapsed, wrapping his arm around the man's wet chest, and fired off three shots without blinking. Each bullet found it's home inbetween three pairs of eyes, and the men that had snuck up on them with their guns drawn dropped bonelessly, dead. Cougar remained poised for a moment until the body in his arms gave a raspy breath. Cougar set his gun aside and touched Jensen's cheek.

"Jensen? Jensen, can you hear me?"

The man's blue eyes opened slowly, and took a minute to focus on Cougar's. A little too long for the Spaniard's liking.

"You okay, Coug?"

The normally cool and impassive face registered shock. "I'm fine." He assured the wounded man, voice shaking though he didn't know why.

Jensen smiled, relieved. "Good," He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

"Jensen, stay with me," Cougar told him firmly before taking the comm off Jensen's ear and hooking it around his own. "Colonel, we need to get out of here, now," Cougar stressed the last word, keeping one eye on Jensen, who was going limp against him.

"Cougar? What's going on? Where's Jensen?" Cougar could hear someone else, probably Pooch, ask a similar question.

"Our position was compromised. Jensen was hit. He needs medical care, now." Something like panic slipped into the words.

"Alright. I'm aborting this mission," Clay finally answered after a moment of silence. Cougar knew it wasn't easy for the Colonel to make that call. "Roque and I are coming to you. We'll be there in five," The line went silent, allowing Cougar to turn his attention back to Jensen.

The younger man was breathing heavily, his eyes barely open. Cougar could hear a wetness in the gasp that told him Jensen's lung had been pierced. He glanced up, and his heart sank when he saw a bloodied bullet half-buried in the plate glass window he'd been staring out, surrounded by a network of spidery cracks.

"Cougar," Jensen whispered weakly. The sniper said nothing, just sought out the neat hole in Jensen's crazy shirt and pressed his palm against it. Blood, hot and revolting, oozed up between his fingers from the bullet wound. He'd never been nauseated by blood before today. "Coug," Jensen tried again, and this time he looked up. "Didn't know you could talk," Jensen smiled, a ghost of his normal grin, and for some unknown reason Cougar laughed. It was short, little more than a bark, but it made Jensen's smile widen just a bit.

"Knew I could make you laugh," Jensen's soft voice was becoming slurred. Cougar pursed his lips and silently urged his team to move faster. The hacker looked up at him for a moment, glazed eyes searching for something unknown, before wrapping a clammy hand around the back of Cougar's neck and pulling him close. Their lips met, lingering but chaste, then Jensen lost consciousness, hand falling against the floor with a dull thud. Cougar was left frozen in place, eyes locked on the still man's sweaty, pale face and mouth working as he tried to find words that refused to come.

That was how Clay and Roque found them, Cougar hunched around Jensen's still body while the genius' blood traced lines down his arm. The two said nothing, just split up. Clay knelt beside his two subordinates while Roque quickly gathered up their gear.

"What're we looking at?" Clay spoke softly, seeing evidence of shock on his normally collected sniper's face. Cougar finally looked up at his commander and cleared his throat.

"Chest shot, through and through. His lung was hit." Cougar explained with a calm he didn't really feel. Clay nodded, sharp eyes examining his face openly. Cougar got the feeling that Clay had just put together some invisible puzzle and was surprised at the result, but he had no idea why.

"Pooch is waiting with the van. Let's get Jensen back to the safehouse and patch him up." Clay finally said.

Hours later Cougar had stitched up their hacker and, together with Roque, moved the still-unconscious man to his bed. So far, Jensen's pierced lung hadn't collapsed, and he hadn't lost enough blood to require a transfusion, though Pooch would be able to give if necessary. The others had left the man to sleep, but Cougar remained, watching the smooth rise and fall of Jensen's bare chest as though it would stop if he didn't.

Clay and Pooch each wandered in a few times to check on Jensen themselves and even sat beside Cougar for a bit, saying little. When Cougar finally managed to tear himself away from the wounded man for only a few moments, long enough to use the bathroom and grab something to drink, he was surprised to find Roque at Jensen's side. He stayed back in the shadow of the hallway and watched silently as Roque checked the wound, making sure the stitches hadn't broken, then pulled the blanket back up, covering the young man with a tenderness Cougar didn't know he possessed. The sniper slipped into the room quietly and resumed his seat. Roque glanced up at him, then turned and left.

It was not far past midnight when Jensen's eyes finally opened slowly. Cougar had been dozing in his seat, lulled by the silence echoing through the house after everyone else went to bed, but was at the man's side in an instant.

"Cougs?" Jensen's words were slurred by fatigue, eyelids heavy. "What's going on?" Cougar sat on the bed beside him and laid a hand on the uninjured side of his chest.

"We got you back to the safehouse. Everything's fine," Cougar reassured him. Jensen stared up at the ceiling for a moment, breathing slowly.

"The mission?" He finally said.

"Scratched," Cougar's fingers moved without him thinking about it, stroking Jensen's bare skin soothingly. He saw guilt settle on the other man's face like he predicted. "It had to be done. You needed help."

"But-"

"You saved my life," Cougar interuppted before Jensen could get lost in his own self-loathing. "I owed it to you. We all did."

Jensen sighed, but seemed to accept his words. Tense silence fell between them and made itself comfortable. Cougar bit the inside of his lip hard enough to taste copper.

"Why did you kiss me?"

Jensen blinked up at him blankly for a moment, then realization lit up his eyes. "Oh. I...I kissed you because.....it seemed like a good idea at the time," He finished lamely, giving Cougar the kind of smile that said he hoped the sniper would leave it at that. Cougar just stared at him coolly, waiting for a better explanation. "Fuck, Coug, I thought I was dying!" Jensen finally snapped when the silence became too much. "And honestly, I'd been wanting to do that for a long time. Like, since we met, and since I was already a goner I figured what the hell and I just did it, okay? And I'm sorry that I did it. If I'd known I was gonna make it out of this, I wouldn't have risked it, really. And I won't tell the others, I swear! Mum's the word, promise. They'll never know, so please don't kill me. Please," Jensen gave him an appeasing look. Cougar continued staring at him, expression undecipherable. "Coug, please, say something, will ya?"

"Did you like it?"

Jensen froze, and Cougar could feel him shaking slightly. He wasn't sure if it was only from nerves, or if the painkillers were wearing off and he wasn't saying. "...Okay, say anything but that,"

Cougar moved, making Jensen flinch. The sniper was suddenly hunched over him, hands bracketing his shoulders and their noses inches apart. "Did you like it?" He repeated, carefully enunciating each word. Jensen stared up at him with wide eyes and Cougar hear him swallow hard.

"Yes," Jensen finally confessed quietly, holding Cougar's gaze evenly. Cougar smirked, then leaned down. When something clicked in Jensen's head and he let out a squeak of surprise, it was lost in Cougar's mouth on his.

There was a hesitant moment before Jensen kissed back, waiting for the catch. Then Cougar's hand moved down his body, sliding underneath the covers, making him moan. Jensen tried to reach up and tangle his fingers in Cougar's long hair, wanting to pull him closer, but a spike of pain stopped him short. He gasped before he could stop himself. Cougar pulled away immediately, leaving the hacker bereft of his warm body.

"Wait, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Cougar stopped Jensen from sitting up with a hand on his chest.

"You were shot today. You need your rest."

"But-" This time Jensen was silenced by Cougar's lips on his again. The blonde sighed into the kiss.

"I'll still be here when you wake up." The sniper assured him, running his hand down Jensen's face.

"Promise?" Jensen nuzzled into the touch, closing his eyes.

"I promise."

Cougar remained beside him until Jensen fell asleep, then pulled his chair over next to the bed. After a moment's consideration, Cougar took Jensen's hand in his own and leaned back, tilting his hat down over his eyes.

It was a week of stolen kisses in Jensen's room before Cougar let the younger man pull him into the bed and pin him to the mattress. Jensen blazed a hot trail down his body, then proved to Cougar that his talented tongue wasn't just good for talking.


End file.
